I agree wholeheartedly with KaleMarsh - in fact males tend to be demonized much more in fiction and are rarely given any realistic or deep reasons for their "evil" behaviors (they're often evil because they were like that from the start or like it more than being good) while women's case, most the time some outside force forced them to be "evil" - their heart got broken/they were abused in childhood/they suffer some mental illness (which of course is not of their fault).
Even in Utena, it's pretty much a given that Anthy became "evil" because of what other people did to her, thus she's just a poor victim. They are some fans who try to look deeper and suggest that maybe Anthy's own reasons for saving Dios were not so pure in the first place or maybe even her love for him was twisted or maybe her way of dealing with the mob was wrong (too aggressive) in the first place - but these are fairly rare points of view.
Which brings me to another problem  - why is that Anthy's actions toward Dios are perceived as that of a loving girl trying to help her loved one and sacrificing herself for him? Suppose we switched Anthy and Dios genders - what would you think of Anthy's actions then? I'm pretty sure most of people would write male-Anthy off as some kind of creepy molester/stalker who forcefully and against her will locked poor female-Dios away, just so he could molest her to satisfy his own earthly desires. Somewhat not many people let themselves believe that man could also do such a thing for woman's well-being and is not only using her for his own advantage. We still tend to think women=selfless and men=selfish when looking for causes of their actions.

All in all even if their "evilness" men are almost always perceived as agents (and fangirls even expect them to be evil just for the sake of being evil or because they cool like that) while women are almost  always victims, even of their own supposed "evilness".

I'm still waiting for a series where women would be presented as being "evil" simultenously because of having a tragic past while said tragic past is mainly rooted in their own imcompetency, childishness, personality or other psychological factors. And where men would be given better reasons for being evil overlords other than wanting to conquer the world just for lulz or or having a murder fetish.

In gender criminology, there's a lot of research into cases where husband-wife double murders occur, and the male gets a much lower sentence than the female does.  The theory is that, when a female is an active agent in a violent case, it appears to the average psyche that she commits two crimes: one against the victim and the other against her own femininity.  Men are masculine and naturally violent, so they can be excused, but women are supposed to be kind and nurturing.  Juries are more likely to be harder on women in violent crimes.  I would tell you exactly where I found this paper, but I returned the book.  I remember that the author's name was Anette Ballinger, at least.

As a result, violent female villains will take more flak.

Instead, SKU makes an effort to demonize the self-imposed helpless woman more than the violent man, since it's ultimately on Utena's and Anthy's shoulders to change their lots.  They're capable of confronting the situation and succeeding if they stop trying to do be inactive, so the latter seems much worse to me than even Akio's behavior.  The solution is simple; get over it and take action.  The result, however, is that society might throw stones.

I don't think Akio can be forgiven or anything, and I think he still comes off much worse than Anthy or Utena.  SKU also hates "natural" male violence and lust.  I'm just speculating about intention and story-telling on the other side.

Last edited by KaleMarsh (06-20-2011 12:58:30 PM)